Megagauss technology and pulsed power applications

This is the final report of a 3-year LDRD project at LANL. Because of recent changes in Russia, there are opportunities to acquire and evaluate technologies for ultrahigh-magnetic-field flux compressors and ultrahigh-energy, ultrahigh-current pulsed-power generators that could provide inexpensive access to various extreme matter conditions and high-energy-density physics regimes. Systems developed by the All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Experimental Physics (VNIIEF) at Arzamas-16 (Sarova) have the potential of creating new thrusts in several areas of high-magnetic-field and high-energy-density R&D, including high-field and high-temperature superconductivity, Faraday effect, cyclotron resonance, isentropic compression, magneto-optical properties, plasma physics, astrophysics, energy research, etc. Through a formal collaboration supported and encouraged by high-ranking DOE officials and senior laboratory management, we have gained access to unique Russian technology, which substantially exceeds US capabilities in several areas, at a small fraction of the cost which would be incurred in an intensive and lengthy US development program.